Haskalah and Hasidic Movements According

Haskalah and Hasidic Movements

According to Shira Schoenberg, the Haskalah, or "Jewish Enlightenment," "was an intellectual movement in Europe that lasted from... The 1770's to the 1880's" and was inspired by the European "Enlightenment." The word Haskalah is derived from Hebrew for "sekhel" which means reason or intellect and was initially based on rationalism. This movement "encouraged Jews to study secular subjects, to learn both the European and Hebrew languages and to enter such fields as agriculture... The arts and sciences" ("The Haskalah," Internet).

The person most closely affiliated with the Haskalah movement was Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), often called the "German Socrates." In essence, Mendelssohn expressed the possibility that the Jewish creative participation in secular culture and society was not in conflict with the traditional Judaic system. As a philosopher, Mendelssohn became quite well-known for his views on aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology and human psychology and based almost all of his scholarly arguments on reason and logic. Generally speaking, Mendelssohn argued that philosophical rationalism, based on religious truths and human failings, did not go against the traditional views of Judaism.

He also argued that Judaism, being the faith of Israel, was not a religion revealed through the word of God but through legislation, due to Judaism being founded upon specific laws, commandments and rules that govern man and his earthly existence. Thus, the members of the Haskalah movement with Mendelssohn's beliefs and arguments serving as the foundation of their beliefs, saw the commandments, especially the ceremonial laws, as symbolic acts which helped to direct one to the eternal truths of reason which greatly assisted the followers of the Haskalah movement from being tempted to believe and practice false ideals and tenets.

As a result of Mendelssohn's arguments, the Haskalah movement reduced the Judaic faith to a collection of ceremonial laws while also expanding the movement into a universal religion based on reason and logic. The characteristics of the followers of the Haskalah movement thus influenced a great deal of modern Jewish thought, for in contrast to earlier Jewish philosophies, that of the Haskalah movement sought to bring together revelation and reason as one body of truth and endeavored to show the importance of Judaism as part of the framework of human reason, logic and culture. One other aspect of the Haskalah movement was Zionism which aimed to establish Jewish nationalism in Palestine in order to support the existence of Israel, something that Mendelssohn viewed as being a mission for all Haskalah members in order to justify the continued presence of Judaism and Jewish religious thought.

In contrast to the Haskalah movement, the Hasidic movement was not based on the higher echelons of philosophical thought nor on the ideas of intellectuals like Mendelssohn. The first adherents of the Hasidic movement were teachers that were part of a popular group of evangelists who wandered from one to community to another, usually among the lower classes of poor Jews in Podolia and the surrounding countryside. Some observers at the time thought that these teachers held Shabbatean viewpoints, due to socializing with lesser merchants and the poor, a view that later influenced the development of the Hasidic movement in the 19th century.

The history and origin of this movement is usually divided into four specific periods -- the Circle of the Besht (1740-1760), the establishment of the first Hasidic center in Mezhirich (1760-1772), the existence of the disciples of Dov Ber (1773-1812) and the development of Hasidic houses or lines of succession (1812 to the present). The first period, made up of Besht himself and his disciples, preached a new type of worship which entailed various novel conceptions of the role of those elected in the Jewish faith, known as qabbalists, who adhered to the major mystical symbols of the Lurianic school while endorsing the achievements of the individual and his ability to help his fellow brothers with religious concerns. One of the main subjects taught by these qabbalists was "devequt," or the communion with God that stressed one's ability to be in constant contact with God.

Following this period, the leadership of the Hasidic movement was placed upon a disciple known as Dov Ber who often held meetings in his own home with young Jewish intellectuals and the common people. His "court" was referred to as the "maggid" and it was within this "court" that the Hasidic movement became wholly organized. The next period was dominated by the disciples of Dov Ber when the movement itself became a major influence in Judaism. Part of this influence was due to the Hasidic theory of the "tsaddig" which quickly began to shape and mold Hasidic thought and social organization.

Also during this period, Hasidic literature was published and one of the first works was that of Ya'aqov Yosef, the greatest disciple of Besht, whose huge collection of sermons (1780) represented the teachings of Besht. This collection was then followed by the published sermons of Dov Ber and some of his most important disciples. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Hasidic movement had a thoroughly controlled leadership and was represented by a good body of literature, both of which contributed to the general framework of all Jewish life during the 19th century.

The final period which continues to the present day was marked by the establishment of Hasidic communities by a number of Dov Ber's disciples. At this time, the theology and ethics linked to the Hasidic movement became very distinct and differed heavily from previous Jewish ideals and tenets. The main characteristics of the theology of this period had much to do with de-emphasizing the dramatic mythical symbols linked to Lurianic mysticism, such as the "shevirat ha-kelim" or the breaking of the divine vessels and the descriptions of the disasters within the divine world of God which in the Hasidic mind served as the origins of human evil. Conversely, the idea of "tsimtsum" or divine self-contraction was highly supported by the Hasidic movement but in a totally original manner as contrasted with the Lurianic qaballah.